This invention generally relates to outdoor lawn sprinklers and portable watering systems.
Many people use the common, inexpensive, portable oscillating sprinkler to water their front and back yards and gardens. The first such sprinkler was apparently produced in the late 1940s. Oscillating sprinklers produce elliptical water distribution patterns incompatible with typical orthogonal, rectilinear, rectangular shaped front and back residential yards. I was inspired to invent an embodiment of the oscillating sprinkler that produces a rectangular water distribution pattern when I experienced the aggravating and inefficient, time-consuming task of separately watering the corner areas of my own yard, particularly after I had planted bushes around the perimeter of my back yard. I was further inspired when I observed the waste water produced by the elliptical water distribution pattern of prior art sprinklers distributing water beyond typical rectilinear boundaries of areas being watered in my front yard, and throughout all of metro Denver, Colo. I was further inspired when I observed the run-off waste water running off of driveways and streets and running down the streets of town into the storm sewers. I was further inspired when I realized that this run-off waste water was conveying fertilizer and herbicides, etc. into lakes, streams, and rivers, etc. I was further inspired when I realized that precious fresh water was being wasted in parts of the country and world with water shortages and times of drought. I was further inspired when I began conducting experiments with prior art sprinklers and realized that the sprinklers were delivering substantially more water to the “ends” of their elliptical water distribution pattern than to the “middle area” of the ellipse. My neighbor stated “you have to waste some water to get the corners.” On Aug. 15, 2008 I filed a patent application entitled “Oscillating Sprinkler That Automatically Produces A Rectangular Water Distribution Pattern.” In general, this disclosure describes embodiments additional to those in “Oscillating Sprinkler That Automatically Produces A Rectangular Water Distribution Pattern,” and describes embodiments that perform functions additional to those performed by the embodiments in “Oscillating Sprinkler That Automatically Produces A Rectangular Water Distribution Pattern.”
Water is supplied to a prior art oscillating sprinkler from a standard faucet and hose. These sprinklers typically consist of a base structure on which is mounted a water motor and an oscillating tube with a plurality of nozzles. The tube oscillates back and forth along its longitudinal axis powered by the flow of water through the water motor. In order to water areas wider than the length of the tube, directional streams must be produced so that for example, an oscillating tube 12 inches in length may produce a water distribution pattern for example 40 feet wide at the widest point of its generally elliptical water distribution pattern. Directional streams are produced either by using a curved tube as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,721,248 or else by placing the nozzles at longitudinally outward angles on a straight tube as in U.S. Pat. No. 6,062,490. In general, if a prior art oscillating sprinkler is located where the water will reach the corners, then much of the water falls outside of a typical rectangular area being watered between the corners, and is waste water and/or run-off waste water. If the sprinkler is located where it will not produce waste water and/or run-off waste water, then the corner areas do not receive water.
MANUAL adjustments are available on many PRIOR ART oscillating sprinklers which can cause the water distribution pattern to be a full-sized ELLIPSE, an ELLIPSE smaller than the full-size that the sprinkler is capable of producing, a partial ELLIPSE, a long narrow ELLIPSE, or a short wide ELLIPSE, but they are all nonetheless ELLIPTICAL. THIS IS DESPITE THE DIAGRAMS OF “RECTILINEAR” AND “RECTANGULAR” WATERING PATTERNS AND THE USE OF THE WORD “RECTANGULAR” ON PRIOR ART SPRINKLER PACKAGING AT THE STORE, ON WEB SITES, IN PUBLICATIONS, AND PATENTS, ETC.
All information provided in this writing, and all information provided in the patent application entitled “Oscillating Sprinkler That Automatically Produces A Rectangular Water Distribution Pattern,” which I filed on Aug. 15, 2008, regarding any embodiment and/or any variation and/or any combination thereof may be considered to be applicable to all embodiments and/or variations and/or all combinations thereof. That prior application, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/192,689, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,011,602 issued Sep. 6, 2011, is hereby incorporated herein by reference for all purposes.